130 A Journey to London in 1840. 



wards successive!}' minister of Bothwell and Professor of Divinity 

 in tlie College of Glasgow. The physician was born in Shotts, 

 but Miss Baillie is a native, I think of Bothwell.^ But Shotts, 

 though thus eminent in literary history, is eminent also in a de- 

 partment of a very different kind, though of immense importance 

 from an economical point of view. Its mineral wealth, coal and 

 ironstone, is great. The Shotts ironworks have been celebrated 

 for nearly 40 years and are being extended annually. The Omoa 

 Ironworks in the same parish are not so extensive though older. 



On leaving Shotts we passed into the parish of Botliwell, a 

 place connected with many interesting historical associations. 

 The battle of Bothwell Brig in 1679 between the royal forces, 

 commanded by the Duke of Monmouth, Graham of Claverhouse, 

 and Dalziel of Binns, and the Covenanters, headed by Hackston 

 of Rathillet and Hall of Haughhead, first occurs to painful re- 

 membrance. We have unfortunately abundance of bigotry and 

 persecution at this moment in Scotland, but, thanks to the intelli- 

 gence and liberality of the age, it now evaporates in words only 

 and never comes, nor can come, to blows. The spirit is willing 

 but afraid to strike. But not so in these comparatively dark and 

 tyrannical times. The controversy was not then carried on con- 

 stitutionally as beseems a free country and an enlightened people 

 but by physical force. The Episcopal party in particular, or 

 exclusively, thirsted for the blood of their imperturbable and 

 conscientious opponents. The Covenanters on this occasion, 

 though they had been a short time previously victorious over 

 Claverhouse at Drumclog, were vanquished in their turn and 

 cruelly insulted or murdered after they had fallen into the hands 

 of the royalists. The bridge at that time was only 12 feet wide, 

 and on the taking or keeping of it did victory depend. Scott in 

 his novel of Old Mortality has slandered the character of the 

 leading Covenanters engaged in this struggle. He had consider- 

 able room for his severity as their disputes, wrongheadedness, 

 and obstinacy were violent and impracticable, but he has dipped 

 his pen in gall when drawing their character and describing their 

 procedure. They were on the whole men before their time and 

 the age was not worthy of them. They perilled life and property 



4. Joanna Baillie was born at the manse of Bothwell, 11th Sep- 

 tember, 17p2.— J. A. F. 



